Smoking Versus Sniffing Versus ‘Shooting’ Heroin

Heroin addicts use the illegal drug mostly for the euphoric feeling it may give them.

Heroin can be injected, snorted, or smoked, depending on the preference of the user, but effects of injecting heroin are felt within seven to eight seconds.

Although effects for sniffing or smoking heroin build up more gradually, starting in ten to 15 minutes, smoking or sniffing heroin has grown in popularity because of the accessibility of high-purity heroin and the alarm of sharing needles.

The Lies Surrounding Heroin Use

Moreover, several heroin users misguidedly think that smoking or sniffing heroin will not lead to heroin abuse and may allow them to control their use of this illegal drug.

But in reality, smoking and sniffing could be just as dangerous as injecting heroin, especially when this leads to addiction or substance abuse.

Many heroin addicts lose control when the effects of smoking or snorting this substance becomes too powerful or influential.

Effects On the Mind & Body

Following the drug ingestion, heroin crosses the blood-brain wall. Heroin converts to morphine while in the brain and binds quickly to opioid receptors. Physical reliance causes the abuser’s body to adjust to the presence of the heroin; withdrawal symptoms take place if use of the drug is reduced.

If heroin is used by a pregnant woman, this can lead to premature delivery of the baby or result in a miscarriage. Heroin contact in uterus can raise a newborn baby’s threat of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). Street heroin is frequently cut with substances such as powdered milk, starch, sugar, and strychnine, and other drugs.

These additives may not melt when injected in a user’s body and can block the blood vessels that go to the brain, lungs, liver, or kidney infecting and killing patches of cells in vital organs. Additionally, a lot of heroin users don’t know their heroin intake’s definite strength or the real contents of the substance, putting them at higher risk of death or drug overdose.